SameSame.com.au ~ Inside Out Australia

Getting Wilosophical

Feature, By Pete Dillon, 2nd June, 2009

Wil Anderson is a funny bloke. The broadcaster, stand-up comedian and writer has just finished a successful season at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and is about to take his show Wilosophy on a tour taking in Sydney and Brisbane, before heading overseas.

Wil took time out to chat to Same Same’s Pete Dillon about laughter, sexuality and his night with 22 naked footballers.

Wil, you have had a go at all sorts of things… what’s one of the strangest jobs you’ve ever had?
I once was an MC for a Manpower night for the Western Bulldogs Football Club, and that was crazy. The closing number was a thing called ‘the elephant walk’ where there were 22 naked football players, who, to maintain their modesty, put one arm through their crotch and the other arm holds the hand of the player in front. Long story short, sitting side of stage I saw 22 football players’ penises flopped in front of my face. That’s an image that I sometimes wake in the middle of the night and have flashbacks about.

That story sounds like many a gay man’s fantasy. We are not revealing another football scandal here I hope?
No Pete, but I can identify all of the Western Bulldogs from the waist down! The highlight of the night was when, at the end, I had 700 women chanting at me to strip, strip, strip and they chose throw money – not paper money but coins, at me. I was being pelted!

With The Gruen Transfer you not only knocked Kath And Kim off as the best rating TV show in ABC history, but the show was also nominated for an AFI!
I am really surprised that a show about ads on the ABC did so well! I think the usual ABC viewers saw an ad and thought it was time to get up and have a biscuit. I was talking to a commercial TV exec who said, “I hate your bloody show, I bloody hate it. You get more ads on that show than anything I could do and you rate better than us.”

And who was that chat with? Eddie So that was a nice chat you were having with Eddie McGuire?
(Laughter)...

I want to talk about Wilosophy – it’s a great show and 70 minutes of side splitting humour.
Yeah it’s an aerobic workout as well as a show. A week out I had no idea the way this show was going to work out. It was very new when you saw it in Melbourne and I was nervous that it wasn’t ready. It’s one of those things – when you sit in your office and write a show, you don’t know if it’s going to work. I reckon it was at about 80% in Melbourne but it’s now 100% ready.

You have just come back from NZ and are about to head to the US and UK, as well as Montreal. What’s with the itinerary?
Yeah – NZ was interesting. When you go to NZ, it doesn’t matter how funny you are. On your customs form when they ask ‘purpose of trip’ you don’t write “to throw my ring in the fires of Mordor”. They have heard that before and they don’t think it’s funny. You don’t hear laughter; you just hear the sound of a latex glove being stretched over a fist as you prepare for a full body search.

More gay fantasies! Do you think this kind of innuendo is why your humour resonates with queer audiences so well?
I would love to know why my work appeals to any one, let alone a specific audience. I guess I do stuff that I am interested in, and that I care about. If I had to have a guess, I’d say that over the years my humour has been socially progressive. You know, I have a segment of the show that is all about my call for gay marriage in Australia, and I go through some of the reasons that people have against it.

I guess I also have a view of sexuality. It’s not black and white. There is a big sliding scale and there are some that are entirely, rampantly heterosexual and there are some people that are rampantly homosexual, and everyone else falls into some arc between that. I have always talked about that, and am not afraid talking about that sort of thing. I know I have a good gay following and that makes me happy.

Are you a drag queen without the makeup and frock?
I always thought that if I was going to be a drag queen, I would Kerry Man Kennerley. I would dress like KAK, and do interviews like her and songs…

Can you sing?
No! I said I would be all like Kerry Ann!

You are playing shows in Sydney at the Opera House. Have you kicked out some poor classical performance?
Yeah, there is now a performance of Swan Lake at the Sydney Comedy Store!

And you’re also heading to Brisbane for a series of performances there?
Yes – I like Queensland – I am at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) as part of the In Stitches event. I’m there for two nights, doing double performances both nights. Then I am off overseas.

You realise that you may have to speak a little slower up there – Wilosophy is a very fast paced show?
Yeah, but the most fun is in North Queensland. You tell them jokes and spend all the next day laughing when they understand the gags.

Is there any way you are going to bring the chk chk boom girl into the show?
Yeah – I think her and Corey Worthington should make a porn film, it will be 15 minutes exactly in homage to Warhol – quite postmodern.

I think you might be onto something there. So what’s going on in the US and UK?
In the US, meetings. That’s what you do in LA, meetings. Then to Montreal for the festival, then shows in the UK for a few months, then back to the US for some more meetings and lunches, then home in October. Unless of course the Doggies make the Grand Final and then I will be home for that.

I have tipped them to play the Grand Final against Geelong…
Yeah that’s wishful thinking. To make it to the Grand Final you have to have balls and I can confirm that there are 22 Footscray players that have balls. I have seen them.

Wil thanks for talking to Same Same and good luck overseas.
Thanks Pete, and thanks to the community for all of the support.

Wilosophy is at the Playhouse at Sydney Opera House from 11-21 June, then at QPAC in Brisbane on June 24 and 25.

If you missed the controversial episode of The Gruen Transfer that wasn’t approved for broadcast by the ABC, watch this: